A Discussion of American Propaganda & the Mass Media from the Spanish American War to the Present

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Fox News Memo

Charlie Rena is an ex employee of Fox News Channel. He talks about a Memo that management has created in order to ensure that their political views are met in the reporting. They would allow reports from both sides, but the Republican view would be allowed to get the last word. I have heard of this bias behavior and never really paid much mind to it, but it's disturbing when there is someone speaking about it. He maybe just a disgruntled ex- employee of Fox or it may be a valid story. This is what the problem is with media. They have to be careful how and what they report things in order to keep their credibility with the public. If he was fired this could be his way to discredit Fox and their policies. I don't know how I feel about Fox it's not my first choice for news but if what he says is true and he worked for them- to me it takes away from his credibility to me as well as the networks.

1 Comments:

What is the big question here? Should a news network that bills itself and "fair and balanced" play partisan politics? Is Fox different from CNN and MSNBC? Certainly, if we only have evidence from one disgruntled employee then we should not rush to judgement. FOX clearly represents a conservative, pro-Republican, pro-Bush, and yes, pro-war perspective on the news. That bias angers progressives, but I do not think it is a real problem if there are enough other competing news networks and sources that can be used to balance out the material flowing out of FOX. In fact, if FOX spurs liberals into action with their conservative agenda it may not be such a bad thing at all. Conservatives have been angry about what they perceive to be the liberal bias of the mainstream news media for years and that led directly to the creation of alternative forms of conservative media. In a healthy democracy, FOX's excesses should stimulate an outpouring progressive opinion and dissent.